Thu, 20 Nov 2025

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 Ex-Harvard president Larry Summers stops teaching as university investigates Epstein emails

The former US treasury secretary has faced a backlash over frequent messages to Epstein.
Harvard University professor Larry Summers has taken a leave of absence while the school investigates his ties with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A spokesperson confirmed that Summers, former US treasury secretary and onetime Harvard president, will stop teaching and step back as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. Emails released last week indicate that Summers corresponded with Epstein until the day before his 2019 arrest for alleged sex trafficking of minors. The university is conducting a review of information concerning individuals at Harvard mentioned in the newly released Epstein documents. Summers had previously addressed his communication with Epstein to students, stating he was "going to step back from public activity" and expressing shame over what he did in communicating with Epstein. However, on Wednesday night, Summers' spokesperson said that co-teachers will complete the remaining class sessions for the semester, and Summers is not scheduled to teach next semester. The public fallout began after Congress released 20,000 pages of documents from the so-called Epstein files last week, which included multiple emails between Epstein and Summers. The emails showed that Summers and Epstein dined together frequently and that Epstein often tried to connect Summers to prominent global figures. No Epstein survivor has accused Summers of misconduct, and there is no publicly available evidence indicating he was involved in any of Epstein's crimes. However, Summers announced his resignation from the board of OpenAI on Wednesday, citing "the best interest of the Center" as his reason for leaving Harvard.
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